Aircraft crashes in or near Welney in WW2

page created 31st July 2010; last updated
Thursday, 09 October 2014

INTRODUCTION

A number of aircraft accidents occurred locally during WW2.
Some have been fully or partially investigated, others are just vaguely remembered.
The late Ernie James, a well known Welney wildfowler, ferry operator, raconteur and 'fen-tiger' recalled a number of wartime incidents in a book
'Memoirs of a Fen Tiger' written in 1986 by his daughter-in-law, Audrey. These included:

A Mustang that flew low over him and jettisoned two fuel tanks. One exploded on impact, the other was empty, and Ernie took it home and planted flowers in it.
(No date or exact location given)

A Lancaster bomber that crashed in the washes; Ernie found some tiny fragments blown off on impact.
(No date or exact location given)

A Heinkel shot down by an RAF plane crashed in flames in the washes. The crew had baled out, the pilot gave himself up at Suspension Bridge and the others were picked-up later.
(No date or exact location given)

A Wellington bomber incident in 1941 which Ernie described in some detail. See
report, link below.

Ernie's nephew Raymond James recounted the crash of a Junkers in May 1941 (report in link
below), and
another source mentioned a Typhoon.

A very comprehensively investigated incident was the crash of a Halifax bomber just over the
Welney border at Colony
Farm, Manea in 1944, researched by Michael Harrison.

Various voluntary aircraft reaseach groups have physically investigated crashes all around
the area, and there are many websites showing details from offical records and personal
accounts. Jeff Carless of East Anglian Aircraft Research Group has been particularly
helpful and has supplied information (some very detailed) on several crashes and has
corrected errors on some earlier postings.

CRASHED AIRCRAFT and LOCATIONS

The accidents that this website has information about are listed below. Click the aircaft
type to view the report and associated links.

WW2 AIRCRAFT IDENTITY CODE MARKS

RAF aircraft had a 3-letter code painted each side of the fuselage, 2 letters indicating
the squadron, the other the individual aircraft, the two parts separated by the RAF
roundel (which had an extra yellow outer ring).

These codes were also used by the RCAF, SAAF, RNZAF, and for a while after America joined
in the war, by USAAF units of the 8th and 9th AF. Later, the USAAF codes changed to a completely different system
as the number of craft and units increased.

The single letter also indicated the aircraft's call sign, which would have been a name or word from
the phonetic alphabet of the time - in the table above, the Wellington was called "R - Robert".
(Phonetic alphabets varied, there was no standardisation in those days, see link on right.)

Very occasionally the single letter would have been followed by a single-digit number, painted much
smaller than the letters. It indicated an additional or replacement aircraft.
Sometimes the aircraft serial number was shown, also very small (see MG-L on left).

German aircraft had 3 letters and one number - see link on right for details.

In the 1969 film 'Battle of Britain'
the producers insisted that the aircraft should look as authentic as
possible. The exception was the code marks. They realised it would be
impossible to portray every unit that took part in hostilities and it was decided to use fictitious code letters for the RAF
aircraft, thereby apportioning no glory or blame to any particular RAF squadron.

LINKS

Many of the links I originally posted are no longer working. One is Lostbombers.co.uk which
had a very useful searchable database. There was a lot of controversy about that site contravening copywrite or intelectual property - see link to forum. A
new similar site, Lostaircraft.com run from Germany, may be useful so I have added a link to it.